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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23100694">It's (Usually) Never A Good Idea To Meet Your Heroes</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/NoVacancyMind/pseuds/NoVacancyMind'>NoVacancyMind</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Batman - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Attempt at Humor, Batfam Week 2020, But we love her, Day One, Gen, Kinda AU, Prompt Fill, Stephanie Brown Deserves Better, Stephanie Brown is Robin, light editing, she is awkward, we die and come back like Robins</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 13:28:29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,880</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23100694</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/NoVacancyMind/pseuds/NoVacancyMind</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>If you couldn’t feel faint at the prospect of meeting an AMAZON PRINCESS WHO’D BEEN FIGHTING EVIL LONGER THAN ANYONE ALIVE AND WAS GORGEOUS AND HAD AN INVISIBLE JET- well then who could you feel faint meeting?</p>
<p>But Stephanie regularly argued with the boogey-man of Gotham, so she totally had this.</p>
<p>--</p>
<p>Stephanie did not have this.</p>
<p>--</p>
<p>In which I fill the Batfam Week 2020 Day 1 prompt... two days late</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Stephanie Brown &amp; Bruce Wayne, Stephanie Brown &amp; the Justice League</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>102</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>It's (Usually) Never A Good Idea To Meet Your Heroes</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This kinda takes place in an AU I'm writing, but all you need to know is that Stephanie is the third Robin (before Tim) and lasts longer than a few months. *glares at DC*</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Stephanie technically met Black Canary first, but it didn’t hit her at the time. After all, to Gotham, BC was one of them. And when Gotham claimed you as hers, you were hers first, membership to a worldwide league of heroes or not. So despite the fact that Stephanie walked away from her first meeting with Dinah glowing, she didn’t have the dorky smile on her face because she met a Justice League member- it was because a kick-butt blonde who had earned the respect of Batman himself had just agreed to train with her sometime.</p>
<p>Wonder Woman was next, and Steph was not ashamed of the way she swooned when Bruce mentioned she was coming to Gotham to consult on a case. If you couldn’t feel faint at the prospect of meeting an AMAZON PRINCESS WHO’D BEEN FIGHTING EVIL LONGER THAN ANYONE ALIVE AND WAS GORGEOUS AND HAD AN INVISIBLE JET- well then who could you feel faint meeting?</p>
<p>But Stephanie regularly argued with the boogey-man of Gotham, so she totally had this.</p>
<p>--</p>
<p>Stephanie did not have this.</p>
<p>She didn’t know how the heck Alfred always managed to carry a thin tray loaded with fine china up and down the stairs to the cave so quietly, like a tea-bearing ninja, but from the moment she took the first step down the cups and saucers were rattling like a maraca.</p>
<p>While she’d been moping upstairs after Bruce kicked her out of the cave, she had seen the butler preparing a tray to take down to the visiting princess and quickly volunteered to take it down instead. Judging by the sideways glance and twitch of his mustache, he was totally aware of her ruse, but was amused by it nonetheless.</p>
<p>Maybe he had known she’d pay for her conniving. It was a very Alfred thing to do, letting you learn from your own mistakes while standing in the background looking smug.</p>
<p>So now here she was, descending steep stone steps with a set of porcelain worth more than her future college tuition, trying hard not to stare at the powerhouse in a strapless onesie while simultaneously avoiding the Bat-glare ™.</p>
<p>She somehow, miraculously, made it to the bottom with her tray contents intact. The rattling hadn’t stopped, only intensified the closer she got, so she put the tray down on the nearest flat surface and finally turned to face the music.</p>
<p>“Stephanie,” Bruce intoned.</p>
<p>“Bruce,” she copied.</p>
<p>His eyes almost imperceptibly narrowed and Steph fought the urge to stick her tongue out.</p>
<p>See, mom, she did have self-control.</p>
<p>“It’s nice to meet you Stephanie.”</p>
<p>Oh crap. That was Wonder Woman. Wonder Woman was speaking to her.</p>
<p>Be cool be cool be cool</p>
<p>“Hi. I’m Stephanie. Which you just said. It’s nice to meet you too, Princess Woman.”</p>
<p>--</p>
<p>After her disastrous first meeting with Wonder ‘just call me Diana’ Woman, Steph was understandably not in a rush to meet other Leaguers.</p>
<p>Bruce had been extra-grumpy with her the rest of the day, and Alfred didn’t say a word even though she knew he somehow knew what had happened.</p>
<p>Dick, unsurprisingly, had laughed for several minutes straight when she told him, before comforting her.</p>
<p>“Look, all us second generation heroes have had those moments. I practically begged Clark to take me flying when I was a kid, and Jason was worse than you when he met Diana. He couldn’t speak without stuttering.”</p>
<p>As usual, being compared to her deceased predecessor brought up mixed feelings in Steph. On one hand, he was the Robin she remembered best, the childhood hero she grew up watching and hearing about. On the other hand, he was the ghost that haunted the cave, the specter that lingered over all her interactions with Bruce, the memory that almost ruined her chance at being Robin.</p>
<p>But she clung to Dick’s reassurances when Impulse excitedly told the new Young Justice team that Flash wanted their assistance on a case.</p>
<p>Apparently he had gotten wind of a plot involving several of his rogues, and since it was a team up on the bad guy end, he decided it was only fair it was a team up on his end.</p>
<p>Meeting the Flash went remarkably well. Maybe it was because she’d spent so much time with Bart or maybe it was because Dick had told her a bunch of stories about a young Wally West or maybe it was because she actually had the most crime-fighting experience out of all her teammates, but whatever the reason, she felt confident pretty quickly.</p>
<p>That confidence was misplaced.</p>
<p>All that crime-fighting experience? It was from fighting in Gotham. Turns out the bad guys in Central City were more akin to cartoon villains than the Gotham baddies. Riddler they were not.</p>
<p>Of course no one told her that, which is how she found herself awkwardly creating a makeshift splint for Captain Cold’s arm that she may or may not have broken, in an overzealous application of force. If the wary looks from the Flash weren’t enough to throw her off, the fact that he was patting the parka-clad thief on his good arm, murmuring “There, there, Leonard” was enough to make her feel like she’d ended up in another universe.</p>
<p>--</p>
<p>Since the “Flash Fiasco” Steph had instituted a strict policy of avoiding the Justice League based off of Bruce’s own solitary habits. But just like Batman, she was eventually forced to interact with another hero.</p>
<p>One of the perks of Bruce Wayne’s sponsorship was enrollment in a better school, one where a field trip was more than a bus ride to an ACTUAL FIELD. Her band class at her new school had scheduled a trip to see an evening concert in Metropolis and it was shaping up to be one of the best nights of her life.</p>
<p>Of course, like many things that seem great in Stephanie Brown’s life, it would come back to bite her in the butt. Said biting this time came in the form of an actual, honest, alien spaceship crash-landing in the street in front of her bus.</p>
<p>Her classmates, being the unholy combination of native Gothamites and teenagers with cell phones, were quickly distracted live-streaming the chaos, allowing Steph to slip out the emergency exit in the back.</p>
<p>Was she aware that Metropolis was Superman’s turf? Yes. Was she gonna let it get in the way of her kicking alien behind?</p>
<p>Heck no.</p>
<p>Thankfully she always went around prepared with a spare mask and collapsible staff tucked in her purse. She would have to be discreet since she wasn’t in uniform, but she spent most nights staking out drug dens while dressed in primary colors so she figured fighting ETs in a dark purple dress was doable. At least she’d worn flats instead of heels. She had no clue how Zatanna did it.</p>
<p>The aliens were humanoid, but with saggy, scaly skin that looked like the before picture in a lotion commercial. They also spoke in a rolling language that sounded vaguely like what she imagined Vikings spoke.</p>
<p>Stephanie darted behind cars, inching her way up closer to the action while the more sensible civilians ran away from it. The aliens were starting to get worked up over something, raising their voices and waving what looked like very shiny spear guns around.</p>
<p>Okay, so maybe she was a bit in over her head. And she was not gonna end up dead because of a misplaced sense of pride. She wasn’t putting Bruce through losing another Robin if she could help it.</p>
<p>Speed dial 1 on her phone got her a direct line to the cave within seconds.</p>
<p>“What’s wrong?”</p>
<p>The gruff tone of Batman may strike fear into the hearts of criminals, but to a Robin, it was as comforting as a lullaby.</p>
<p>“Hey B, so my field trip may have been interrupted by aliens,” Steph chirped.</p>
<p>After a second of silence she could hear him typing into the computer.</p>
<p>“I see. You are on 32nd?”</p>
<p>“Yep. I got a staff and mask, but I don’t think-“</p>
<p>“Stand down. We don’t know enough to intervene yet and they haven’t made any aggressive moves yet.”</p>
<p>And then, because the universe loves to crap on people trying to do good, the aliens shot their first victim.</p>
<p>“Yeah, I’m pretty sure they’re not here for funsies.”</p>
<p>Bruce gave a very uncharacteristic swear and Stephanie’s stomach swooped.</p>
<p>“That doesn’t sound good, Boss man.”<br/>“Superman is holding up a collapsed bridge in India. He can’t leave without dropping hundreds into a river. I’m the closest Leaguer and I’m at least 15 minutes away.”</p>
<p>As always, the more terse his tone, the worse the situation.</p>
<p>“Well, I’ll just have to keep them busy until then, won’t I?”</p>
<p>“Robin, don’t-“</p>
<p>“Krssshhh oh no you’re breaking up!”</p>
<p>No sooner had she hung up than he was calling her back. Wincing at the lecture she’d get if she survived this, she silenced her phone and slid it back in her purse, tucking it behind the wheel of a recently abandoned car.</p>
<p>Time to be a hero.</p>
<p>--</p>
<p>10 minutes and Stephanie’s legs couldn’t hold her up any more. She’d focused on distracting the aliens as much as possible, but she could only avoid direct confrontation for so long and her suspicion that they were out of her weight class was being proven correct.</p>
<p>It took kicks and hits that would shatter a human’s bones just to give them pause, and while they weren’t particularly fast, they didn’t have to be when there were so many of them.</p>
<p>Steph had never been more glad of Batman’s insane training regimen, but it still wasn’t enough. When she turned around to face the last three she found them ready and aiming their guns at her. There was no way she could dodge all of them, not with how exhausted she was, so she didn’t even try. Maybe if she surrendered she could buy time?</p>
<p>She raised her hands with the last of her strength and prayed the Batmobile hadn’t hit any traffic.</p>
<p>“Is it too late to say ‘take me to your leader’?”</p>
<p>Whether it was because they didn’t understand her or just didn’t appreciate her sense of humor, the aliens were thoroughly unimpressed and hissed angrily.</p>
<p>Stephanie, meanwhile, was just trying to catch her breath to try again, when the world in front of her became a big, blue blur.</p>
<p>It took a moment for her brain to catch up, and when it did she found she was still speechless.</p>
<p>“Sorry I’m late. A grandmother fell into the river. You’re Robin, right?” a soaking wet Superman said, standing- no, floating- in front of her.</p>
<p>He looked around at the wounded and knocked out invaders, the scorching and crushed cars and huddles of scared bystanders, before turning to her and giving a blindingly handsome grin.</p>
<p>“Good job.”</p>
<p>--</p>
<p>Later that night, after she’d rejoined her class and they’d gone back to Gotham, after she’d gotten a lecture and awkward shoulder touch from Bruce, she opened her phone to see a text from Black Canary inviting her to come to Star City to work with her and Green Arrow.</p>
<p>Laying on her bed, Steph thought back on her day and carefully typed out a response.</p>
<p>‘Yeah, can’t wait!’</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I had literally NO IDEA what I was gonna write until I started typing, so if this is crap that's why. Let me know if it sucks or if anything doesn't make sense!</p>
<p>And if it doesn't suck let me know too :)</p>
<p>I plan on filling the other six prompts as well, even if it kills me and they take forever, so if you like this keep an eye out ;)</p></blockquote></div></div>
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